Dr Mike Loosemore has been awarded the 2014 Sir Robert Atkins Award. This international award is made by the Institute of Sport and Exercise Medicine (ISEM) and is named after the former Sports Minister who was a major supporter of the ISEM and it is given to an individual who the Institute judges as having made an outstanding contribution to sport and exercise medicine over a period of at least five years.
Previous winners have included Richard Budgett OBE, Chairman of the British Olympic Association Medical Committee, and Director of Medical Services at the British Olympic Medical Institute; and Simon Kemp, Head of Sports Medicine at the Rugby Football Union.
Dr Mike Loosemore is Lead Consultant in Sport and Exercise Medicine at the institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, University College London, where he treats the general public with musculoskeletal and sports injuries, he is also working to promote exercise as a preventative intervention and treatment in many medical conditions. He is the Lead Sports Physician (South of England) for the English Institute of Sport, based at ISEH where he treats elite athletes from a wide range of sports; he is currently the doctor to the British Boxing and British Snow sports ‘Park and Pipe’ teams. He has travelled extensively with national squads, accompanying teams to Olympic and Commonwealth Games, World and European Championships. He was the Chief Medical Officer for the England Commonwealth Games team in New Delhi 2010 and reprised the role for Glasgow 2014.
Dr Loosemore is active in various fields of sport and exercise medicine research and has published work on various aspects of Sports and Exercise Medicine. He is interested in education of future SEM doctors and is the ‘head of specialty’ for sport and exercise medicine training in London.
In 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in science for ‘outstanding contribution to sport and exercise medicine’.
The award was made at the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine (BASEM) annual conference in Edinburgh on 2 October. Dr Loosemore was also a speaker at the conference, alongside fellow ISEH consultants Dr Ian Beasley, Dr Carlos Cobiella, Dr Roger Hawkes, Dr Ian McCurdie and Dr Eleanor Tillett.
Commenting on the award, Dr Loosemore said: “I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of our greatest sportsmen and women at some iconic sporting events. It’s a great honour to receive this prestige award and to be recognised by my peers in this way.”